| The Learning Experience |
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The principles behind Fieldwork Online
Training
Online training has some obvious advantages over more
traditional face-to-face courses. It gives the students far
more flexibility and gives schools greater value for money, to
name but two.
But there's a lot more to online training than pasting some
useful text onto a website. Our approach draws heavily on the
latest research into the particular needs of our audience - a
very specific set of people with three distinct learning
needs. They are:
- Individual learners (but part of an online community)
- Adult learners
- Online learners
We know all about the theories behind how best to present
material to this kind of learner. For example, we draw heavily
on Kolb's Learning Cycle (DA Kolb 1984). Basically, Kolb said
that to learn effectively, a student has to address all four
stages of the cycle below:
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Concrete experience |
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| Active experimentation |
Student |
Reflective observation |
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Abstract conceptualisation |
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We cover these stages in our courses by
building in:
- Activities which ask 'what happened
- Reflective exercises which ask 'why
- Questions which ask about the implications of what they
have learned
- Suggestions for putting this learning into practice
We've married this knowledge to our vast experience in the
face-to-face training of teachers and school leaders to
produce interactive online courses that are practical, easy to
use, and rooted in well-researched principles of online
learning.
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